“I’m trying to raise Van now,” Cadonau replied. “There is no way the Turks are going to stop this transfer.”
“Lieutenant, tell your men to put their weapons down,” the Turkish captain ordered. “Nobody needs to get hurt here. General Van will be taking this plane.”
“I can’t let you do that,” the lieutenant replied while his first sergeant radioed for Colonel Todd.
“Lieutenant, we have you outnumbered and we have the plane,” Major Aksoy announced from the ramp of the C-130 over the roar of the engines. “Your pilots are coming out now so, as you can see, there’s no reason for anyone to get hurt.”
“Major, I cannot allow you to leave with that plane. Get out of that plane, NOW, sir!” the lieutenant ordered, not giving an inch, as his men backed up seeking any cover they could find.
“Looks like they’re in a standoff,” Jackson commented as he parked their car in the middle of the apron, effectively blocking the plane from taxiing out the apron to the runway.
“Uh-oh, I don’t like the looks of this,” Dani added as she ran around the back of their car.
“Me neither,” Jackson added as they both walked behind the trucks and carts used to move the bombs from storage to the waiting aircraft.
“Stop where you are!” Major Aksoy yelled out to Jackson as he suddenly noticed both Jackson and Arielle moving into better firing positions.
“Major, the lieutenant’s right. You’re not leaving with the plane,” Jackson replied.
“I don’t know who…” Aksoy began just as the C-130 lurched forward and he fell off the back ramp of the plane.
“Stonewall, we’re too late!” Arielle hollered over the hail of gunfire that erupted once everyone realized the pilots were making for an immediate takeoff straight from the taxiway.
The departure of the plane and several of the Humvees left Major Aksoy and his compatriots relatively isolated. Arielle circled around to the front of their car looking to outflank three of the Turks hiding behind their Humvees while Jackson continued to keep them occupied from the bomb truck where Aksoy initially noticed him.
“Drop ‘em!” Arielle commanded the three Turks not ten yards in front of her.
Two of the guards immediately turned towards Arielle, shocked by the sudden command coming for their rear. Three rounds from her H&K put both of them down while the third Turk complied seeing his friends collapse to the ground.
“What the hell’s going on here, Major!” Cadonau called out, seeing the major laying on the apron, bleeding from a leg wound.
“We have your weapons, Colonel. And we’ve completely locked down the base. All power and communications have been cut.”
“We’ll see about that. For now, you’re in my custody!” Colonel Todd asserted.
“Colonel, I think Stonewall and I need to get out of here while we still might be able to,” Arielle quietly relayed to Cadonau.
“Good point. Your plane’s still up by the terminal. It’s fully fueled and ready to go.”
“Stonewall, let’s go!” Arielle said as she headed towards their car.
“Roger that,” Jackson replied.
“Imam, we just heard from General Van. He says ‘mission accomplished.’”
“Excellent, Mohammad! That is very good news. When do you expect him here?”
“He should be here in about an hour.”
“Outstanding! That is simply wonderful. And your plans for our four Israeli guests?”
“I’m looking at next week. If the next few days play out like I expect them to, I would advise that we put them on display next week. With the unprecedented success General Van just advised us of and then what I expect to follow, it’ll be more like a one-two punch for the world to see. The propaganda effect this should have will be immeasurable.”
“So, everything is in place?” al-Baghdadi asked his chief of operations.
“We received word from Major Aksoy when the C-130 landed at Incirlik. We set everything in motion as soon as we received word from him. By this evening, the political landscape in the Middle East will look vastly different.”
“Excellent, Mohammad. You have done very well with this. Let me know how everything progresses.”
XXIII
“Jim, we have an ‘Empty Quiver’ at Incirlik!”
“Excuse me!?! What did you say?” Carmichael replied, knowing the code words for a missing nuke, though never expecting that he’d actually hear them used.
“The Turks just grabbed the last transport plane taking the nukes out of Incirlik. I’m still not sure just who took the plane. We got into a very short firefight with a small Turkish force as the plane took off. They timed this perfectly — just as the last bomb was loaded Major Aksoy and his force arrived. Dani and I have just taken off — we’re tracking the plane on radar. It’s a little ways ahead of us on a heading of one-zero-eight degrees. This all happened not fifteen minutes ago.”
“You said the plane’s on a one-zero-eight heading?!?” Jim asked for confirmation.
“Yeah, I don’t like that either. If this was simply the Turks they wouldn’t be heading southeast. Right now, we currently show them over northern Syria.”
“Stonewall, hold on a second. We’re getting word of a major terrorist bombing in Ankara — have you heard about this?”
“Negative. We’ve been a little preoccupied at Incirlik.”
“Understand. President Demirel has been holding daily meetings, morning and afternoon, with various staff members in the wake of the death of his chief of staff. This afternoon he had a regularly scheduled meeting with his national security staff along with several legislative leaders. From what I can tell, and again, this just happened a few minutes ago, based on the size of the explosion and the damage we’ve seen so far, we’re estimating that the Turkish government, for all intents and purposes, no longer exists.”
“Jim, if the Turkish government has just been eliminated,” Dani began, “and within minutes, someone hijacked a planeload of nuclear bombs out of Incirlik — the timing’s not coincidental! The coordination for something like this is monumental! This is ISIS. No question about it — and I think we’ve all underestimated them.”
“Agreed. I’m heading to the White House now. I expect Secretaries Johnson and Axelsson will be called home immediately. I’m sure by now General Kaufman knows as well.”
“Jim, don’t be so sure,” Jackson added. “The Turks shut down all power and comms at Incirlik. We actually had to break through the front gate to get back on base.”
“Okay, I’ll give Stan a call right away. I’ll be at the White House in twenty minutes. I want you two heading back to Tel Aviv. We don’t need you two flying to Raqqa and getting shot down over there. Dani, if Tamir finds any information on this, I want a call right away.”
“You got it!”
“Jim, we’ll be in touch,” Jackson said as he concluded the call.
“Tamir, Stonewall just called in an ‘Empty Quiver’ at Incirlik,” Dani said as General Pardo answered the call.
“Arielle. What did you say?” Tamir asked in a strong though subdued voice.
“Tamir, ISIS is making a major play on Turkey. We returned to Incirlik right after your call. By the time we reached the front gate, the base had already been locked down. We got to the flight line just as the C-130 was taking off. We were able to take off about fifteen minutes later. Right now we’re tracking it on a course of one-zero-eight about fifty miles ahead of us.”